Are the Pharmaceutical Products in the Best Interests of Patients?

In this essay, a determination will be made reflecting the essence of the relationship between the development and marketing strategies of pharmaceutical products and whether these procedures work in the best interests of the patient. On one side of this issue, we find that these pharmaceutical companies use unethical approaches in an effort to create a profitable business of success. The development of drugs that are released are predominately done so to maximise revenue opportunities. They have repeatedly come under fire for the bias and deceptive information they provide to their consumers. The marketing of products relies heavily on aggressive sales tactics and patients' vulnerability in their search for an improved level of health and well-being. Emotional appeals are utilised to generate a 'need' for something that you may not even require, resulting in the possibility of a dangerous outcome. Pharmaceutical companies will dispute their rights to maximise their commercial return given their levels of investments towards the research process. It is believed that consumer education is however useful and increases awareness and knowledge about illness and disease and any prospective treatments that may be available.

Medical science and research plays a primary role in saving lives and improving the quality of life for those fighting illness and disease. The development of pharmaceutical products has advanced to a point where an ailment will regularly be accompanied by a prescription drug. As a result, the pharmaceutical industry is widely recognised as an extremely profitable and lucrative business. Pharmaceutical companies compete to provide safe and trusted healthcare drugs while positioning their drug as the one which offers the best results. It is the contradiction between providing healthcare solutions in the patients' interests and maximising company and shareholder profits which presents the greatest controversy. Pharmaceutical companies are criticised for spending a greater part of their budget, time and valuable opportunities on commercially driven goals. There are two significant areas where this is most evident. The first is in the development of new drugs which are released to maximise revenue opportunities. The second is the marketing of products which rely on aggressive sales tactics and leveraging the patients' vulnerability in pursuit of a cure. There is a counterargument that pharmaceutical companies invest in research and therefore have a right to maximise their commercial return. Furthermore marketing material is a valuable education tool for health professionals and patients to make informed decisions. The evidence is conclusive and suggests that the patients' best interests are not at the forefront of the development and marketing of pharmaceutical products. In an industry serving to enhance the quality of life to the people, it would seem that peoples' health really does come in at second best.

The development of new drugs are released to maximise revenue opportunities. Pharmaceutical companies have been reported to be rushing through the research and testing stages of development to further expand the commercial life of their product (Cousins, 2009,

p.3). The study and testing of a drug ranges from 10-15 years on average before the prospect of advertising and marketing (Collier, 2002, p.1405). Many drug companies apply a patent which enables them to recover the costs of their research and development through the high profit returns expected once a patent is issued. Once this patent expires, which usually takes about 20 years from the time of conception, a generic brand of the same drug is developed and sold by a competing company only if the original drug company has not done so previously and is then sold at a much lower price (Capella, 2009, p.146). It is understood that the price of drugs is increasing faster than anything else a patient pays for, being at twice the rate of inflation. Prices of the most commonly prescribed drugs are routinely raised up to several times per year depending on its demand and popularity (Weber, 2006, p.152). Over the past decade, the average price of a prescription has more than doubled from $30 - $68 and in 2006, global spending on prescription drugs topped $643 billion for the first time ever, with the U.S accounting for almost half of that at $289 billion (Milligan, 2008). Pharmaceutical companies have also been able to create an entirely new market aimed at 'preventative health risk drugs' using exactly the same advertising tactics. They take it far beyond another level of commercialism by introducing the surreal possibilities of future illness and disease and strive to offer precautionary treatments that can be completely unnecessary to the majority of consumers. This only brings to light yet another unethical status to an industry that is widely considered to be the most profitable of all businesses (Cousins, 2009, p.6).

The marketing of products relies on aggressive sales tactics and leveraging the patients' vulnerability in pursuit of a cure. The pharmaceutical industry is under enormous pressure to market their products in a timely manner as the public has increasingly become aware of sidesteps taken by drug companies in an effort to lengthen

the period of time before the release of its lower priced generic opponent (Weber, 2006, p.159). Pharmaceutical products are not products in which consumers choose to buy, instead purchase out of necessity (Milligan, 2008). The nature of pharmaceutical advertising is to convince the consumer of the 'need' of that product. It will manipulate the public by creating a sense of dissatisfaction with the way things are, using emotional appeals to persuade the consumer in favour of their drug (Collier, 2002, p.1407). Drug companies have been accused of over-medicalising personal and social problems through their marketing tactics in such a way that the public perceives the risk as a viable threat to their well-being. Although the likelihood of the consumer suffering from this ailment is highly improbable, drug giants are stooping to an all time low proving they are willing to lie and mislead simply to meet the demands of success (Cousins, 2009, p.5). The patient-physician relationship has been compromised by these pharmaceutical monsters. At one time, a doctor's primary concern was the health of the patient. During this time, no incentives existed for doctors to prescribe certain medications and the process was aimed at deterring potential side effects. Today, thanks to large, money-driven pharmaceutical companies, doctors possess an ulterior motive other than what is in the best interests of the patient (Rice, 2009, p.197). In addition, these marketing strategies have shown to be a driving force behind the prescribing behaviours and